Remote User Interviewing Basics

Choose carefully. Don't compromise. Here are some techniques I've found that work for me: 1. Preparation is vital. Review your profile before you talk to anyone. 2. Ask open-ended questions, such as: • What would you redesign about your last job, and why? • How would your references answer the following question … ? 3. Take good notes. You'll likel

Who should I interview? Face to face or on the telephone? How many interviews should I conduct? How should I present myself in the interviews? Should I record the interview, or simply write very fast? Can I update my interview guide after I’ve done the first interviews and learned a few things?

Don’t be afraid to get unorthodox when interviewing, and not just with your questions or expected answers, but with your overall approach. Always start by asking how you can change the environment. Don’t be afraid to switch things up.

Besides reading through any existing documentation (see Principle 56), we start each project by interviewing business stakeholders and potential end-users. During these interviews, which are about thirty minutes each, we ask open-ended questions to encourage interviewees to share their thoughts in greater detail.

To start the interview, you really just need answers for the four bolded questions: what is it, who is it for, why do they need it, and how does it work? So we’ll call our version the “3W’s and H.”